Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) saw a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 51,500 shares, a growth of 112.8% from the August 31st total of 24,200 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 36,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days. Currently, 0.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HOOK. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Hookipa Pharma by 12.3% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 991,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 108,844 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hookipa Pharma by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 302,246 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 83,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Hookipa Pharma during the first quarter worth approximately $31,000. 63.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on HOOK shares. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on shares of Hookipa Pharma from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. JMP Securities boosted their price objective on Hookipa Pharma from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th.

Hookipa Pharma Price Performance

Hookipa Pharma stock traded up $0.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $4.24. 20,791 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 59,849. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $6.67. The company has a market capitalization of $41.95 million, a P/E ratio of -0.85 and a beta of 0.84. Hookipa Pharma has a 52-week low of $4.10 and a 52-week high of $11.30.

Hookipa Pharma (NASDAQ:HOOK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($1.52) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.44) by ($0.08). Hookipa Pharma had a negative net margin of 93.16% and a negative return on equity of 36.81%. The company had revenue of $1.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.68 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Hookipa Pharma will post -3.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Hookipa Pharma Company Profile

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops immunotherapeutics targeting infectious diseases and cancers based on its proprietary arenavirus platform. The company's lead infectious disease product candidate is HB-101, which is in a randomized double-blinded Phase 2 clinical trial in cytomegalovirus-negative patients awaiting kidney transplantation from cytomegalovirus-positive donors.